(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrostatic precipitation device for removing particles in explosive exhaust gases.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Exhaust gases that are generated when producing a semiconductor material, device, and product and a memory device are used for a process equipment and in this case, various chemical compounds are together generated. These compounds include inorganic and organic compounds, precipitate of photo-resist, other reaction materials, and various other gases that should be removed from a waste gas before being discharged from a process equipment to the air.
In a semiconductor production process, an exhaust gas containing a harmful material of strong toxicity is generated, and it is prohibited to discharge the exhaust gas in view of pollution prevention. Further, in a semiconductor production process, explosive gases are much generated as an exhaust gas, it is not allowed to discharge an exhaust gas containing a harmful component or dust in the air, and it is required to discharge a safe and clean gas with various processing.
Therefore, conventionally, there has been adapted a method of installing a harmful material processing device that decomposes a harmful material that is included in an exhaust gas with a catalyst, that adsorption removes a harmful material or dust with absorbent, or that converts a harmful material or dust to a harmless material and an exhaust gas processing device having an exhaust path that induces an exhaust gas from a semiconductor production device to a harmful material processing device, inducing an exhaust gas of the semiconductor production device to the harmful material processing device through the exhaust path, and in which the harmful material processing device chemically converts a harmful material to a harmless material or physically removes a harmful material to discharge the harmless material in the air.
As a representative method among conventional methods of processing an explosive gas of exhaust gases, a method such as scrubber, a HEPA filter, or electric dust collection has been used.
However, the scrubber has a wastewater treatment problem and a problem that an extra fine particle removal performance is remarkable low, the HEPA filter has a problem that a process pressure change is caused due to a back pressure change, and the electric dust collection method has a problem that explosion occurs due to discharge in view of an explosive gas characteristic.
Further, there is a problem that a particulate material such as SiO2 may be perfectly removed with a method such as scrubber, a HEPA filter, or electric dust collection.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.